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Data at Rest in RDA Fabric

Robotic Data Automation Fabric (RDAF) provides several types of ways to store metadata and data within the Fabric itself. In most common use cases, RDAF pulls data from various sources or ingests data via streaming and eventually sends to another destination outside the Fabric. In these scenarios, only limited data is saved in RDAF.

Artifact Type Description
Datasets Tabular data. Could be input to many pipelines or output from pipelines.
Log Archives Time based storage of data in object storage optimized for long term retention and cost reduction
Application Dependency Mappings Application dependency mappings, typically consumed by AIOps or ITSM applications.
Also known as Stacks in RDAF.
RDA Objects Any arbitrary data including binary data such as Images, Videos, Pickled Objects.
Job Outputs Output of recently executed pipelines.
Persistent Streams Automated persistence for any streamed data .

1. Datasets

In RDA, the term Dataset refers to tabular data and typically stored within RDA fabric.

Supported formats for RDAF datasets are CSV and Parquet.

Storage Location

  • Both Dataset Metadata and Data are stored in RDAF Object Storage.

Related Bots

Related RDA Client CLI Commands

   dataset-add               Add a new dataset to the object store
   dataset-delete            Delete a dataset from the object store
   dataset-get               Download a dataset from the object store
   dataset-list              List datasets from the object store
   dataset-meta              Download metadata for a dataset from the object store

See RDA CLI Guide for installation instructions

Managing through RDA Portal

  • In RDA Portal, Click on left menu Data
  • Click on 'View Details' next to Datasets

Managing through RDA Studio

  • Studio only supports viewing/ exploring of datasets
  • In Studio, Select Task: "Explore Datasets"

Studio

  • Since Studio is a Jupyter notebook, dataset can be accessed using get_dataset function. List of all dataset management functions available in notebook:
    • add_dataset(data_or_file, name): Add a dataset using data_or_file with dataset name name
    • add_dataframe(df, name): Adds dataframe df as a dataset with name name
    • get_dataset(name): Download specified dataset and return pandas DataFrame.
    • list_datasets(): Studio

Examples

  • Example Datasets
  • Example Dataset Metadata 
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            {
            "name": "my-dataset",
            "format": "csv",
            "mem_size_mb": 0.0,
            "num_rows": 4,
            "num_columns": 8,
            "saved_time": "2022-02-22T10:05:28.847550",
            "dtypes": {
                    "sysContact": "object",
                    "sysDescr": "object",
                    "sysLocation": "object",
                    "sysName": "object",
                    "sysObjectID": "object",
                    "sysServices": "int64",
                    "sysUpTime": "int64",
                    "target": "object"
            }
        }

2. Bounded Datasets

Bounded Datasets are always bound to a specific data model defined using JSON Schema. Bounded datasets can also be edited in RDA Portal.

This is a new feature introduced in May 2022

Example JSON Schema for Bounded Datasets

Example Schema.json
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{
      "title": "Example Schema",
      "properties": {
            "text": {
                  "type": "string",
                  "title": "Simple Text"
            },
            "enum": {
                  "type": "string",
                  "default": "low",
                  "enum": [
                        "low",
                        "medium",
                        "high",
                        "critical",
                        "emergency"
                  ],
                  "title": "Scalar Enum"
            },
            "bool": {
                  "type": "boolean",
                  "title": "Simple Boolean"
            },
            "enum_array": {
                  "type": "array",
                  "title": "Array Enum",
                  "items": {
                        "type": "string",
                        "enum": [
                              "enum1",
                              "enum2",
                              "enum3",
                              "enum4"
                        ]
                  }
            },
            "int": {
                  "type": "integer",
                  "title": "Integer",
                  "description": "Integer with < 80 and > 20",
                  "exclusiveMaximum": 80,
                  "exclusiveMinimum": 20
            }
      },
      "required": [
            "text",
            "enum"
      ],
      "name": "sample"
}

Storage Location

  • Both Bounded Dataset Data and Schema are stored in RDAF Object Storage.

Managing through RDA Portal

  • In RDA Portal, Click on left menu Data
  • Click on 'View Details' next to Datasets
  • Use Schema tab to manage data models.
  • Use Schema Bounded Datasets tab to manage the life cycle of bounded datasets.


3. Log Archives

Log Archives are time based storage of data in object storage, optimized for long term retention and cost reduction. Log Archives store streaming log data in S3 like storage. Each Log Archive Repository may contain one or more named archives, each with data stored in a compressed format at minute level granularity.

Log Archives are stored in a user provided object storage in following format:

    Object_Prefix/
        ARCHIVE_NAME/
            YEAR (4 digits)/
                MONTH (2 digits)/
                    DAY (2 digits)/
                        HOUR (2 digits, 24 hr clock)/
                            MINUTE (2 digits)/
                                UUID.gz

Each file under the MINUTE folder is typically a UUID based name to uniquely identify the ingestor or pipeline saving the data. Contents of the file are one line per each row of data, encoded in JSON format. Files are stored in GZIP compressed format.

Example contents of the file look like this:

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{"device":"milesxi-dr-03.acme.internal","message":"Vpxa: verbose vpxa[B203B70] [Originator@6876 sub=vpxaMoService opID=3c62fb43-d2] Adding querySpec. Had=33, has=33","rda_gw_timestamp":"2022-04-16T00:00:01.289885","timestamp":"2022-04-16T00:00:01.289885"}
{"device":"milesxi-dr-05.acme.internal","message":"Rhttpproxy: verbose rhttpproxy[468CB70] [Originator@6876 sub=Proxy Req 75640] Resolved endpoint : [N7Vmacore4Http16LocalServiceSpecE:0x0420c070] _serverNamespace = \/vpxa action = Allow _port = 8089","rda_gw_timestamp":"2022-04-16T00:00:01.290207","timestamp":"2022-04-16T00:00:01.290207"}
...

Storage Location * Typically, Log Archives are stored in one or more S3 compatible storages like Minio, AWS S3, Google Cloud Object Storage, Azure Blob. * For demonstration and experimentation purposes, RDAF built-in object storage may also be used.

Related Bots * @dm:create-logarchive-repo * @dm:logarchive-replay * @dm:logarchive-save

Related RDA Client CLI Commands

    logarchive-add-platform   Add current platform Minio as logarchive repository
    logarchive-data-read      Read the data from given archive for a specified time interval
    logarchive-data-size      Show size of data available for given archive for a specified 
                              time interval
    logarchive-download       Download the data from given archive for a specified time interval
    logarchive-names          List archive names in a given repository
    logarchive-replay         Replay the data from given archive for a specified time 
                              interval with specified label
    logarchive-repos          List of all log archive repositories
    merge-logarchive-files    Merge multiple locally downloaded Log Archive (.gz) files 
                              into a single CSV/Parquet file

Managing through RDA Portal

  • In RDA Portal, Click on left menu Data
  • Click on 'View Details' next to Log Archives

Managing through RDA Studio * Studio does not have any user interface for managing log archives.

4. Application Dependency Mappings (Stacks)

Application Dependency mappings are typically consumed by AIOps or ITSM applications.

Application Dependency Mappings capture relationships among various application components and infrastructure components. Dependency Mappings are produced by RDA Pipelines with data retrieved from one or more sources.

See Application Dependency Mapping for more details on how to create Stacks using RDA Bots.

Storage Location

  • RDA Fabric Object Storage

Related Bots

Related RDA Client CLI Commands

    stack-cache-list          List cached stack entries from asset-dependency service
    stack-impact-distance     Find the impact distances in a stack using asset-dependency service,
                              load search criteria from a JSON file
    stack-search              Search in a stack using asset-dependency service
    stack-search-json         Search in a stack using asset-dependency service, 
                              load searchcriteria from a JSON file

See RDA CLI Guide for installation instructions

Managing through RDA Portal

  • In RDA Portal, Click on left menu Data
  • Click on View Details next to Dependency Mappings

    Portal

Managing through RDA Studio * Both RDA Studio & RDA Fabric share this artifact * In RDA Studio, Select Task Explore: Stacks

Studio

5. RDA Objects

RDA Objects can be any arbitrary data including binary data such as Images, Videos, Pickled Objects.

Storage Location * RDA Fabric Object Storage

Related Bots * @dm:object-add * @dm:object-delete * @dm:object-delete-list * @dm:object-get * @dm:object-list * @dm:object-to-inline-img * @dm:object-to-file * @dm:object-to-content

Related RDA Client CLI Commands

    content-to-object         Convert data from a column into objects
    file-to-object            Convert files from a column into objects
    object-add                Add a new object to the object store
    object-delete             Delete object from the object store
    object-delete-list        Delete list of objects
    object-get                Download a object from the object store
    object-list               List objects from the object store
    object-meta               Download metadata for an object from the object store
    object-to-content         Convert object pointers from a column into content
    object-to-file            Convert object pointers from a column into file
    object-to-inline-img      Convert object pointers from a column into inline HTML img tags

See RDA CLI Guide for installation instructions

Managing through RDA Portal

  • RDA Objects are only managed by RDA Pipelines & CLI

Managing through RDA Studio * RDA Objects are only managed by RDA Pipelines & CLI

6. Job Outputs

Output of recently executed pipelines. RDAF retains Job Outputs for 4 hours after completion of a pipeline execution job.

If the pipeline developer does not want to save the final output, it is recommended that final bot of the pipeline be @dm:empty

Storage Location * RDA Fabric Object Storage

Related RDA Client CLI Commands

    output                    Get the output of a Job using jobid.
    purge-outputs             Purge outputs of completed jobs

7. Persistent Streams

RDA Streams allow streaming of data from Edge to Cloud and between pipelines. Persistent Streams allow automatic persistence of data into Opensearch (OS) / Elasticsearch (ES).

Persisting continuously streamed data into OS/ES, allows it to be indexed and can be queried.

List of Automatically Persisted Streams

Stream Name Retention
(Days)		 Description
rda_system_feature_usage 31 RDA Portal and Studio capture all usage metrics by feature.
This report is accessible via left side menu Analytics
rda_system_deployment_updates 31 Audit trail of changes to Service Blueprints
rda_system_gw_endpoint_metrics 31 RDA Event Gateway data ingestion metrics by ingestion endpoint
rda_system_worker_trace_summary 31 Pipeline execution statistics by Site, Bots etc.
rda_worker_resource_usage 31 Resource usage metrics published by RDA Workers
rda_system_gw_log_archival_updates 31 Log Archive metrics by RDA Event Gateway
rda_system_log_replays 31 Audit trail of Log Archive replays
rda_system_worker_traces 1 Detailed execution traces for each pipeline, published by RDA Workers

Storage Location * Metadata: RDA Fabric Object Storage * Data: In RDA Fabric Opensearch or Customer provided OS/ES (See Data Plane Policy)

Related Bots * @dm:create-persistent-stream

Related RDA Client CLI Commands

    pstream-add               Add a new Persistent stream
    pstream-delete            Delete a persistent stream
    pstream-get               Get information about a persistent stream
    pstream-list              List persistent streams
    pstream-query             Query persistent stream data via collector
    pstream-tail              Query a persistent stream and continue to query for incremental data every few seconds

Deleting Persistent Streams

Deleting a persistent stream only deletes metadata about persistent stream. It will stop persisting any new data.

Does not delete already persisted data from underlying OS/ES.

Managing through RDA Portal

In RDA Portal, Click on left menu Data

  • In RDA Portal, Click on left menu Data
  • Click on 'View Details' next to Persistent Streams

Portal

Configuring Data Plane Policy

RDA Fabric available at cfxCloud provides a built-in Opensearch for storing usage data and many operational metrics for RDA Fabric itself.

It can also be used to store data ingested by the Fabric on an experimental basis. To route & store large amount of data, users may provide their own Cloud Hosted Opensearch/ Elasticsearch.

Following is an example how the policy can be configured either for cfxCloud or on-premises or customer's own cloud deployments:

Example Policy JSON 
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{
    "pstream-mappings": [
        {
            "pattern": "app-logs.*",
            "es_name": "es1"
        },
        {
            "pattern": "infra-logs.*",
            "es_name": "es2"
        },
        {
            "pattern": "rda.*",
            "es_name": "default"
        },
        {
            "pattern": ".*",
            "es_name": "default"
        }
    ],

    "credentials": {
        "es": {
            "es1": {
                "hosts": [ "my-opensearch-host" ],
                "port":"9200",
                "user":"**********",
                "password":"**********",
                "scheme" : "https"
            },
            "es2": {
                "hosts": [ "my-elasticsearch-host" ],
                "port":"9200",
                "user":"**********",
                "password":"**********",
                "scheme" : "https"
            }
        }
    }
}